The Driver's License Debacle - Part 2

A glimpse into a personal struggle, a bit of a rant, and more government incompetence brought to you by - your tax dollars.

On Friday, November 17th, an item arrived for me at the post office by registered mail. As I've mentioned, the only time this ever happens to me is when it's a letter from Manitoba Public Insurance. For those who don’t know, MPI is the governing body that issues driver's licenses in Manitoba.

My wife mentioned that this is probably who it’s from, and though I had hopes it might be something else, like possibly a Christmas gift I had ordered for my wife, or a card from the local mafia, my wife's intuition (as usual) turned out to be correct.

The letter was dated November 16, 2023, and began as follows (emphasis in original):

Our records indicate that you were involved in the driving incidents listed on the attached form titled ‘Record of Incidents’.

Due to the serious nature of these incidents, your driver's license, ability to obtain a license, and privilege to drive in Manitoba will be suspended for 6 months effective Dec 16, 2023 to June 15, 2024 inclusive. This action is authorized by Section 90(1) of the Drivers and Vehicles Act.

You have the right to participate in a hearing to discuss your driving record and explain why you feel your driver's license should not be suspended.

It went on to state that “any personal hardship that may result from this suspension will not be considered,” and that if I wished to take advantage of this generous offer of a hearing, I needed to contact them before December 1st (a little over a week from the receipt of this letter) or “provide a written submission” detailing why I feel I should be entitled to continue to hold a driver's license. The letter was accompanied by an attached paper entitled Record of Incidents.

A bit of background

If you've already read The Continuing Saga of the Driver's License Debacle - Part 1, then you'll know that I've been engaged in this battle to keep my driver’s license for almost three years now. It's not a long read, but it’s an interesting one.

Anyway, the culmination of this battle (and where Part 1 of this saga left off) was with me surrendering to the inevitable conclusion that I would need to take an “Evaluative Road Assessment”, or ERA in order to prove I was still capable of operating a motor vehicle. This ERA happened on March 25th of this year. Because we live in a rural area, this involved booking an entire day off work to allow for travel time of about three hours both ways as well as the time required for the assessment, lunch, and whatever else we decided to do while in Winnipeg that day. So, it was hardly convenient.

I arrived at MPI's Driver Fitness office a little before the appointed time and let them know I was there to take my test. It didn't take long before the assessor made himself known and invited me to pull my car into the building.

After the usual introductions and obligatory social pleasantries, he asked me to “demonstrate a shoulder check”, which I did. His immediate response was, "Are you going to do an exaggerated shoulder check every time?" I said, “Probably.”

As a music instructor (which is my winter work), when I "demonstrate" a specific technique to my students, it usually is exaggerated, so that they know exactly how it works. I found it a little bit annoying that he would specifically ask for a “demonstration” and then take issue with how I demonstrated it. My response was definitely indicative of said annoyance. That evidently set the tone for the rest of the trip.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, I failed that Evaluative Road Assessment. I failed it for reasons that would likely cause many rural drivers in a large city to fail a test like that. Things like:

1. Making a last-minute correction when approaching an unfamiliar intersection (there were no other vehicles present),

2. Passing parked cars on a small side street with oncoming traffic. I judged there to be enough room to do it safely but the guy beside me disagreed with that judgement. Though he maintained I had only inches to spare on either side, still there were no horns blaring, no birds being flipped, and no cars jumping the curb to avoid me. Evidently no one else on the road was terribly concerned about my ability to perform such a maneuver.

3. “Hugging the line.” Not “over the line,” mind you, just hugging it.

For a guy whose vision is apparently so bad that he’s not permitted to operate a motor vehicle, it’s hard to believe I was able to perform these feats without hitting something, sending old ladies diving for their lives, or causing some other form of chaos.

Regardless, I left that place no longer being able to legally drive my vehicle. I was a little bit in shock.

Of course, I appealed this decision immediately and 7 months later I was finally notified that my hearing was on December 1st which just so happens to also be my birthday. Happy birthday to me…

Back to the letter

Less than 2 weeks before my hearing is when I received the aforementioned letter. I walked down to the post office to pick up the letter and began reading it on the way back. I was really curious about the “serious driving incidents” mentioned in the first sentence, because I couldn't remember any, and I was already well aware that my driving abstract was flawless over at least the last decade. I made myself finish reading the letter before I flipped to the attached Record of Incidents.

Here's what I found:

I had to turn it over a couple of times just to make sure I wasn't somehow missing some important information, especially considering the “serious nature" of these incidents I was allegedly involved in. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to locate any incidents at all, much less any serious ones. Perhaps you can see something I missed in the above photo…

Because this letter requested that I provide a written submission to account for my actions if I wished to avoid the imminent suspension of my license (a license which I don't currently possess), I took it upon myself to put together a submission immediately.

My response was as follows:

To Whom it may concern,

I just received a letter from your office dated November 16, 2023, and delivered by registered mail, informing me of the imminent suspension of my driver’s license due to my involvement in certain “driving incidents” of a “serious nature”. According to this letter, I have until December 1st to furnish you with an explanation as to why my license should not be suspended.

Regarding this letter, I have several questions:

1. Is your office aware that as of March 25, 2023, I have not even been in possession of a valid Manitoba drivers’ license?

2. Is your office further aware that on December 1st, 2023 (the deadline for submitting this explanation) I have an appointment at 2:20 PM to appear before the Medical Review Committee to discuss said cancellation of my drivers’ license? And,

3. How am I expected to defend or explain my involvement in these alleged serious driving incidents (which were detailed on an attached page entitled RECORD OF INCIDENTS) when said RECORD OF INCIDENTS was completely blank?

I feel I may have better success at explaining why when I drop an egg on the floor, it lands on the ceiling.

Sincerely confused,

Ken Hiebert

If I’d have had a little more time to prepare, I’m sure I could have come up with something that was a little more fun, but since I was a bit pressed for time, I sent it off the way it was that weekend by regular mail and on the following Friday morning, my wife and I headed into Winnipeg for my hearing.

The hearing

I was really concerned that there was going to a bunch of old stuffy guys in suits sitting there peering at me over their horned-rimmed glasses and demanding that I prove to them why I had dared to even question their judgement on my ability to take advantage of the extreme privilege of holding a driver’s license in this province.

It turned out to be nothing like that.

I walked in there, and there were three doctors (one man and two women) seated at the front of the room and a couple of young people off to the left sitting at a computer.

They told me to have a seat at a small table in the back of the room and then just started asking me questions. They seemed pleasant and weren't at all intimidating, and so we were just sort of sitting there having a conversation. I got to tell my story, which is good because thats the whole reason I was there. The Medical Review Board, I discovered is completely independent from Manitoba Public Insurance and they let me know that right away.

When I got to the part about my vision (apparently) not meeting the requirements to hold a license, one of the docs interrupted me and said, "But your vision DOES meet the requirements."

I said, "What?" And she said it again.

So I said (a little louder than I’d intended), "Then what the heck am I doing here?" They said that they weren't really sure, and that they were wondering why a "fully sighted man" was sitting there arguing for the right to have a driver's license based on vision requirements. She told me they had received a very nice letter from Dr. Wiens (my ophthalmologist, whom I’ve seen many times and whom they also know) that said my vision was perfectly fine. I said I've been telling MPI this for almost THREE YEARS, and my optometrist and my doctor agree.

So, the bottom line is that I should never have had to deal with any of this shit to begin with, and I got the impression that were it up to them, they’d have just quashed the whole thing right then and there. Sadly, all these guys can do is make a recommendation. It's still up to MPI and I still may have to retake that test that I failed, but it sounds like this group is going to do what they can to help me.

The whole thing took about 30 minutes, and after providing them with a folder full of documentation to bolster my case, I walked out of there feeling fairly vindicated, but also severely pissed off that all this fucking bullshit didn't even need to happen in the first place.

The best thing that could happen right now is that they overturn that decision and just give me my license back and close the book. I'm not holding my breath. It would also be nice if they would compensate me for all the work that I lost over the last seven months (and continue to lose). It is a pretty good chunk of income. I'm not holding my breath for that either, but I'm definitely going to be talking to someone about it.

So, does this whole ordeal simply boil down to a bloated and incompetent bureaucracy? Yes, it's an insurance company, but it's also owned by the government and staffed by government employees - employees whose salaries come from the taxes that I pay. So yeah, they work for me. The scary thing is, that it's fairly likely that I'm not an anomaly here. Gross incompetence of this magnitude can't help but swallow multiple victims.

Add to this the fact that these public employees who work for me and whose salaries are paid with my taxes, were on strike throughout the majority of this latest debacle, and I can safely say that I'd very much like to fire every single one of them.

---

More from BlogOfKen on various topics: